A Cozy, Feel-Good Christmas Podcast Playlist

Driving Home for Christmas:

A Cozy, Feel-Good Christmas Podcast Playlist

As you’re heading home for the holidays or pottering around the kitchen, peeling spuds and drinking sherry at odd hours of the day, you might want to listen to a podcast. But at this time of year, maybe your usual episode of Today in Focus or Inside Politics just doesn’t feel very seasonal. So here’s a super fun and festive playlist for you, for when you need to force yourself into the Christmas spirit, or when you get the urge to fling your radio out the window for playing Mariah Carey for the 15th time that hour.

1. The Answer Me This Christmas Album

Answer Me This is one of my favourite shows on the planet, and this Christmas Album is so worth your three quid. It’s a rollicking good listen and side-splittingly hilarious. The team tackle the big Christmas mysteries such as: why do we kiss under the mistletoe? Why does Rudolph have a red nose? And what was the biggest Christmas TV special of all time?

2. The Juvenalia Christmas Smalltacular 2018

Juvenalia is a brilliant Irish podcast (and part of the Headstuff Podcast Network, woo!) about people’s memories of their youth; and the nostalgia is strong with this one… Christmas stuff like Furbies, Puppy in My Pocket, Cadbury’s Fudge, and chocolate spreads all get dissected by the crew. It’s a hilarious down Christmas memory lane, and will give you loads of “do you remember….” conversation starters for the dinner table.

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3. This American Life: “Say Yes To Christmas”

This American Life is never short of the warm-and-fuzzies, and this episode is one of my favourites. Setting Christmas dinners on fire, a heart-warming story of two immigrant children who experience Christmas for the very first time, and Ira on why he hates The 12 Days of Christmas.

4. The Moth Holiday Specials

The Moth storytelling stalwarts are always great for a good tale, and their holiday specials are fantastic. This links to the 2017 special, with stories about celebration, differing traditions, and family, and I’m sure, will have a 2018 special out before Christmas. And if you like this one, you can go back to the archives, too. Here are links to some of their older episodes: 2016, 2015 and 2014 or you can listen to all the episodes below.

5. “Tinsel Tales” from NPR

This selection of stories from NPR is an authentic, old-school slice of Americana, and as you might expect from NPR, beautifully told and produced by gifted storytellers.

6. Studio 360: “Redesigning Christmas”

This podcast episode asks an award-winning Creative Agency to redesign and rebrand Christmas entirely; to reimagine a contemporary Christmas; and the results are pretty spectacular (plus Dolly Parton makes an appearance, which elevates anything to gold star standard).

Ciara is a podcast producer and freelance communications specialist. She currently produces and edits a number of podcasts within the HeadStuff Podcast Network, and with them, produced a ten part series in 2018 - The Eighth - about the eighth amendment referendum. She is currently working on a six part documentary podcast series with A Lust for Life on the mental health system in Ireland, and is planning her own new podcast series with HeadStuff. She is passionate about storytelling, good design, new technologies, social justice, the arts, and creative collaboration. Talk to her about podcasts and she'll talk back forever.

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